Armorial panel thumbnail 1
Armorial panel thumbnail 2
+2
images
On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Armorial panel

Panel
late 15th century to 16th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
Netherlands (made)

Panel. Arms of the Dukes of Burgundy. Grosvenor Thomas collection.

Object details

Category
Stained Glass
Object type
Panel
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Armorial Panel
  • Fragment
TitleArmorial panel
Materials and techniques
Stained glass
Stained Glass
Brief description
Panel depicting the arms of the Dukes of Burgundy
Physical description
Panel. Arms of the Dukes of Burgundy. Grosvenor Thomas collection.
Dimensions
  • Framed height: 158.1cm
  • Framed width: 49.0cm
  • Sight height: 149.8cm
  • Sight width: 40.7cm
Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries
Gallery label
(2008 (TAB))
Stained Glass Panels from the Chapel of the Holy Blood
Probably about 1496

These panels depict the armorials associated with the Dukes of Burgundy and their Hapsburg successors. Two of the armorials commemorate the marriages between Maximilian of Hapsburg and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy and also that of their son Philip the Fair and his wife Joanna, heiress to the Kingdom of Spain.
Maximilian probably commissioned these windows to honour his wife's devotion to the Holy Blood and to publicise his dynastic succession to the Dukes of Burgundy.

Flanders, Bruges
Clear and coloured glass with painted details and silver stain; with later restorations
Museum nos.C.443, 444, 445, 446, 447, 448-1918
Purchased from Grosvenor Thomas from the Capt. HB Murray Bequest
Object history
Reconstruction of the windows in the Chapel of the Holy Blood:
Were 9 windows of two lights each.
19th replacements
Window 7: Emperor Maximilian & Mary of Burgundy
Window 8: Charles the Bold and Isabel of Bourbon
Window 9: Charles V and Isabella of Portugal


From the archives of the Confraternity of the Holy Blood – payments for glazing were recorded in 1483 and in 1496.

The ancient glass disappeared during the French invasion of 1797. The glass from the Chapel was sold by the municipality of Bruges to a local man for a miniscule sum who then sold them, at great profit, to an English man in the early 19th century. Believe the glass ended up with firm of Watson & Bethell.

There are coloured drawings of the windows, pre-dispersal, in the Chapel archives. In 1845 reproductions of the panels were made from these drawings by the glass painter Pluys.

In 1913 they were owned by Grosvenor Thomas. He acquired them from Kilburn Grange which was erected after 1830.

Rackham, in a letter of 1921, says panels were previously in Kilburn Grange which had been pulled down 10 or 12 years ago [presumably meaning 1909 or 1911]. The family of Major Cecil Peters of Sunbury Manor, Sunbury in Middlesex, formerly owned Kilburn Grange.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Bernard Rackham, The Stained Glass in the Chapel of the Holy Blood at Bruges, Actes du XIIe Congres International d'Histoire de l'Art, Bruxelles, 20-29 Septembre, 1930, pp.424-431
  • J. Gaillard, Recherches historiques sur las chapelle du Saint-Sang a Bruges, Bruges, 1846
  • Aymer Vallance, 'Some Flemish Painted Glass Panels', Burlington Magazine, XIX (July 1911)
  • The Grosvenor Thomas Collection of Ancient Stained Glass, catalogue, New York, 1913
  • David Thomas Powell (ac.1800-c.1837), copies (12) of stained glass from the Chapel of the Holy Blood, Bruges. Watercolours.
  • Barbara Butts and Lee Hendrix, Painting on Light: Drawings and Stained Glass in the Age of Durer and Holbein, J.Paul Getty Trust, 2000
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
C.445-1918

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Record createdAugust 4, 1998
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O8720/armorial-panel-panel-unknown/
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